TURKEY HAS SAID IT HAS STRUCK SYRIA IN RESPONSE TO MORTAR FIRE

Dramatic developments are occurring in regards to the crisis and
Civil War in Syria.

Earlier today, neighboring Turkey had said that mortars from
Syria, which killed a mother and three children within Turkey,
according to multiple reports. The situation has prompted a
possible international crisis, as Turkey is a NATO member.

"Our armed forces in the border region responded immediately to
this abominable attack in line with their rules of engagement;
targets were struck through artillery fire against places in
Syria identified by radar," the
statement said.

"Turkey will never leave unanswered such kinds of
provocation by the Syrian regime against our national
security."

The Turkish foreign minister has issued a formal complaint
to the United Nations and its secretary General, Ban
Ki-Moon. NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen
on the need for an emergency meeting of NATO members, the
statement said.

This raises very interesting international global security
issues.

If the U.S. was looking for an international legal
justificationfor intervening in Syria, it may have
just found one.

And even if not, they may be required to by international
law.

Reuters reports that Turkey's foreign minister has contacted
NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen on Wednesday after a
mortar, which was fired from within Syria,
killed a woman and four children in the southeastern Turkish
city of Akçakale.

Turkey's Deputy Prime Minister — according to
the Cihan news
agency — stated that "Syria must be made to account for
the incident and there must be a response under international
law."

While the NATO
charter explicitly states that "the Parties undertake,
as set forth in the Charter of the United Nations, to settle any
international dispute in which they may be involved by peaceful
means," Article 5 stipulates:

The Parties agree that an armed attack against one or more of
them in Europe or North America shall be considered an attack
against them all and consequently they agree that, if such an
armed attack occurs, each of them, in exercise of the right of
individual or collective self-defence recognized by Article 51 of
the Charter of the United Nations, will assist the Party or
Parties so attacked by taking forthwith, individually and in
concert with the other Parties, such action as it deems
necessary, including the use of armed force, to restore and
maintain the security of the North Atlantic area.

Any such armed attack and all measures taken as a result thereof
shall immediately be reported to the Security Council. Such
measures shall be terminated when the Security Council has taken
the measures necessary to restore and maintain international
peace and security.